Northern Ireland: Special forces deployed in Belfast as riots continue April 11, 2021 Undercover special forces soldiers have been deployed in Belfast as rioting by gangs of young unionists continued over the weekend. Dozens of officers have been injured over the past two weeks in Northern Ireland as violent rioting in Belfast has gradually escalated. Images of petrol bombs and fireworks being thrown at police and over Belfast’s [...]
MPs back Prince Philip statue on The Mall in London April 11, 2021 Prince Philip is set to be commemorated with a statue along The Mall in London, after the idea gained cross-party backing by MPs. The Mall already has statues of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother alongside a statue of her husband King George VI. The Sunday Telegraph reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader [...]
Greensill lobbying row: Matt Hancock ‘had private drink’ with Cameron and Lex Greensill April 11, 2021 Matt Hancock met former PM David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill for a “private drink” in which the pair lobbied the health secretary to introduce a payment scheme that was later offered by the NHS. The “private drink” took place in October 2019 and the trio were joined by Bill Crothers, the former head of [...]
COP26: Is the City ready for its leading role in the fight against climate change? April 10, 2021 Windows were smashed at Barclays headquarters this week by climate activists who urged the bank to cut its climate destructive investments. Last week campaigners painted the Bank of England (BoE) black in a bid to raise the alarm on the institution’s funding of Big Oil. Where money goes within the City is under more scrutiny [...]
Biden sets aside $14bn to fight climate change in 2022 budget April 9, 2021 President Joe Biden has proposed $14bn in spending on initiatives to fight climate change in the 2022 budget, including large cash injections for environmental regulation and science research. The proposal underscores the administration’s ambitions to decarbonising the economy by 2050 to stem global warming, reversing a policy direction set by former President Donald Trump to slash red [...]
Biden to create commission to look into expanding Supreme Court April 9, 2021 US President Joe Biden will order the creation of a bipartisan commission to study potential reforms to the Supreme Court, including whether to expand the number of justices. The commission would tackle the “merits and legality” of specific high court reform proposals, the White House said in a statement, along with the contentious idea of [...]
London mayor candidate: Labour voters will go Green over Starmer anger April 8, 2021 Traditional Labour voters will back the Green Party in upcoming London local elections to send a message to Sir Keir Starmer, according to Green candidate Sian Berry. Berry told City A.M. that “a lot of people are frustrated with the Labour party” under Starmer and that there is “a real chance to bring people over [...]
Northern Ireland: Ministers condemn ‘deplorable’ violence in Belfast April 8, 2021 Northern Ireland’s devolved government has condemned the “deplorable” acts of violence and rioting from militant unionists over the past six nights in Belfast and beyond. Ministers said in a statement that they are “gravely concerned by the scenes we have all witnessed on our streets, including those at the Lanark Way interface [in Belfast] last [...]
Brexit: EU online deliveries to UK have halved April 8, 2021 Online deliveries to the UK from Europe have plunged 50.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2021, according to e-commerce shipping platform Sendcloud. New shipping requirements and extra VAT costs have drastically cut EU to UK shipments compared to the final quarter of last year. The new data has stressed the delivery issues online [...]
Labour accuses Boris Johnson of breaking ministerial code in Sadiq Khan row April 7, 2021 Labour has today accused Boris Johnson of breaking the ministerial code for using a Downing Street press conference to attack mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner is accusing the Prime Minister of using government resources for party political campaigning, a breach of the code, after Johnson said at Monday’s press conference [...]